Between eight and nine thousand negroes were released from the military detention camps this morning by order of Adjutant General Charles Barrett who informed Mayor T.D. Evans that the city must assume the responsibility of feeding, clothing and housing these homeless people. Mayor Evans at once placed the entire responsibility on Clark Field as general director of the relief works.
The work is underway with headquarters at the Red Cross office, Fourth street and Cincinnati Avenue.
Money, clothing, tents, cots and trucks are needed as well as volunteer workers.
Send Funds to Field
All contributions should be sent direct to Clark Field instead of being sent through round-about channels which will cause delay in getting them to the sufferers.
At a meeting held in the Red Cross office this morning Mr. Field placed responsible persons in charge of every phase of the work. He established general headquarters at the Red Cross office, a central Red Cross relief camp at the fairgrounds where between 5,000 and 6,000 negroes were detained by the military authorities last night, a Red Cross hospital at the old Cinnabar hospital on North Main and Easton streets and a relief and supply depot at Booker Washington school where the negroes who return to their homes may obtain food, clothing and medical supplies.
Try to Get Tents
A hurried effort is being made today to get tents and cots sent here from St. Louis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and other Red Cross centers. These will be loaned to the negroes in order that they may return to the lots where they lived and pitch the tents over the ashes of their homes. Lumber will also be furnished them so that they can put floors in the tents and board up the sides or build temporary shacks to live in until more permanent homes can be built.
Many of the negro families have been separated and a bureau has been established in the Y.M.C.A. lobby for the registration of all those who are seeking friends or relatives.
Every downtown church has been turned into a temporary relief station for the negroes. They will be cared for there as long as necessary, but the Red Cross is making an effort today to get all of them removed to the fair grounds as soon as possible. Some of them are still being cared for at the ball park.
Between 5,000 and 6,000 negroes were cared for at the fair grounds last night where the women had cots and the men slept on the ground or in the buildings. By tonight the Red Cross workers expect to have cots for all of them. Hot plates are being installed in the main building where the women can cook their food. Last night it took five hours to serve supper to them. One thousand loaves of bread, 150 gallons of soup, eighty gallons of ghoulash and hot coffee was served to them at noon today. The food was cooked in downtown hotels and restaurants and the coffee prepared on the grounds.
Those on the Job
The faithful Red Cross workers who were on the job that night and today include Ed Salrin, Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Berend, Mr. and Mrs. J. Stauman, Mrs. Tom Roselle, Mrs. O.L. Chancellor and Miss Marion Black. Other workers are being solicited. The camp at the fair grounds is to be a permanent camp where the refugees will be cared for indefinitely.
The organization formed by Clark Field today is as follows:
Mrs. Jennie K. Keam and L.C. Murray, assistants; railroad transportation: J.A. Hull and W.L. Walker, 1012 Kennedy building, Osage, 7100 bedding supplies, Mrs. Lilah D. Lindsay, First Baptist church; clothing relief, Mrs. J.A. Hull and Mrs. H.L. Heinzman, boys division Y.M.C.A., automobile and truck transportation, J.C. Anthony, Red Cross headquarters and supply, Ora Upp, Mrs. A.W. Roth, Mrs. John Wheeler, Booker Washington school, bureau of identification, Y.M.C.A. lobby Robert H. Woods, Osage 2889; medical supplies and relief, Miss. Richardson, Y.M.C.A. director of relief station, Booker Washington school, E. L. Connally, stolen and lost goods, warehouse, B. Pickering Lumber Co., 102 E. Archer St., A.C. Doering; shelter, H.L. Heinzman; nursing, Mrs. W.D. Godfrey, Red Cross office, relief camp, fairgrounds. N.R. Graham, Cinnabar hospital relief station, Dr. Paul Brown.
While funds have not been supplied, the Red Cross is guaranteeing everything and is going ahead and getting what is needed in the present emergency on the faith that Tulsa citizens will raise the necessary funds as soon as possible.
